Tuesday, August 7, 2012

With the huge amount of exposure these "stash" tapes have received, and the large number of downloads the files have seen, clearly there is an interest in something more.

So, I've started a new blog, The New Order Archives. The first post explains the mission statement and what to expect. Please update your bookmarks, and keep both TPoIT and TNOA on your RSS feeds ;)

For a duration, I will crosspost new entries on TNOA over here, but only links to the posts over on TNOA. But ultimately all "stash"-type material will only be on TNOA, with my normal non-New Order postings continuing here.

Speaking of New Order.... IFPI/Warners DMCA'ed the Run 2 unreleased mixes post. I didn't complain this time as in this case it clearly was something the label had rights to and I had squat; I had just hoped that 20+ year old mixes, never released, would escape anyone's attention. Then again, 6,000 downloads later since they were posted in 2009, there clearly was interest. Ah well.

Enjoy TNOA! I think my first post there will be new-ish masterings of the Western Works demos, hugely improved from the version I posted a million years ago. Watch that space...

At long last I'm starting to fix up and free a stash of gigs - which first saw the light (heh) in 2004 on the long-defunct Sharing The Groove, but were essentially untouched beyond basic cleanup - that really show how brilliant New Order were in their prime in the mid-'80s.

The quick-and-dirty background: Whilst cleaning house, a set of master New Order soundboard tapes (various mid-80s live gigs, some rehearsals, and a DAT or two from the band's 1989 US tour) was found by Hooky under the floorboards at his studio Suite 16 in Rochdale, England. A musician friend of Hooky, who was in his employ for a duration in the early 90s, then rescued the tapes and sold them to an infamous collector in Florida, a collector not known for sharing the wealth. In the interim, ATR (sometimes called Stash) obtained digital transfers of these tapes before they were shipped off to Florida. ATR then shared them amongst the New Order cognoscenti, and then in 2004 we fed them to the world via Sharing The Groove.

All these gigs had their various problems as-received from the source in between Hooky and us, the least of which were sector boundary errors (which means, if burned as-is to CD, there are audible "pops" in between tracks) and all off-pitch by varying degrees. Some were extremely muddy, and others were far too bright. None of them were just right, but my aim is to make them so.

(The New Order "stash" gigs that were on Sharing The Groove, and various other torrent sites and blogs from 2004 onward, are all from those original 2004 releases and have not been formally mastered since, until now.)

This is easily one of my all-time favorite New Order sets. Generally fantastic, crystalline sound; great setlist; unique segues; sequencer cockups. It's all here.

"Ceremony" on the Retro box set live CD was sourced from this very transfer via one of the Stash transfer recipients, though obviously without my mastering (the Retro version is inexplicably slowed down, and has been "muddified" for lack of a better term). It truly shines here and is one of my favorite performances ever of this track. Don't let the sound quality of the Retro version scare you, at all - this completely shatters Retro's version and beats it to a bloody pulp.

"Skullcrusher" - enough said. One of the few performances with "lyrics" - and I put that in quotes because it's basically Barney ad-libbing a lyric. And it's wonderful, in its absurdity. The performance is, simply, out of this world. And "Lonesome Tonight"! Easily a top 5 New Order track for me.

Throughout the sequenced tracks ("The Village" / "Confusion" / "Hurt" / "Blue Monday" / "Everything's Gone Green" / "Temptation") you can audibly hear problems with the sequencer. It's cutting in and out (it's actually mostly in, it's only dropping out in a few places) of the board feed; I have no idea if this was a problem with the on-stage equipment or simply the feed into the PA. It makes for some unique versions, and I absolutely love it.

There's a wonderful problem with the sequencer kicking off "Everything's Gone Green" in that it bleats "Blue Monday" in perfect sync with "Everything's Gone Green" until Gillian sets things right. And the perfect segue between "EGG" and "Temptation" is done perfectly, the sequencer going for a full 12 minutes straight between the two songs. Love it!

The original unmastered version of this gig has been spread pretty far and wide since 2004. Trust me when I say you will want to bin it immediately upon hearing this 2012 mastering - it crushes it like a grape. This version here is truly spectacular, and could be released tomorrow by Warners.

At long last I'm starting to fix up and free a stash of gigs - which
first saw the light (heh) in 2004 on the long-defunct Sharing The
Groove, but were essentially untouched beyond basic cleanup - that
really show how brilliant New Order were in their prime in the mid-'80s.

The
quick-and-dirty background: Whilst cleaning house, a set of New Order
tapes (various mid-80s live gigs, some rehearsals, and a DAT or two from
the band's 1989 US tour) was found by Hooky under the floorboards at
his studio Suite 16 in Rochdale, England. A musician friend of Hooky,
who was in his employ for a duration in the early 90s, then rescued the
tapes and sold them to an infamous collector in Florida, who is known
for not sharing the wealth. In the interim, ATR (sometimes called
Stash) obtained 1st-generation dubs of these tapes before they were
shipped off to Florida. ATR then shared them amongst the New Order
cognoscenti, and then in 2004 we fed them to the world via Sharing The
Groove.

All these gigs had their various problems
as-received from the source in between Hooky and us, the least of which
were sector boundary errors (which means, if burned as-is to CD, there
are audible "pops" in between tracks) and all off-pitch by varying
degrees. Some were extremely muddy, and others were far too bright.
None of them were just right, but my aim is to make them so.

(The
New Order "stash" gigs that were on Sharing The Groove, and various
other torrent sites and blogs from 2004 onward, are all from those
original 2004 releases and have not been formally mastered since, until
now.)

This is the second of two French gigs sourced from the Stash. The first being Rennes; it's not the first to be posted here because Rennes needs quite a bit more TLC than most of these sets. Regardless, this Orleans set is easily one hour of my favorite New Order, ever.

Here, the band visits two songs that were not long for this world; "Hurt" only saw one more airing after this, and "ICB" went to its lonely place forevermore after this night. Which is a shame; I love "ICB" and until Hooky's bass packs it in midway, it's well on its way to "classic track" status.

The rest of the gig is no shambles either, though there are a few whoppers in "She's Lost Control" and it's no wonder they don't revisit this song again until New Order Mk. III in 2001/2002. "In A Lonely Place" cuts where the soundboard tape ran out / at the tape flip spot. Which is a shame, it was going to be brilliant based on the 1:15 that made it.

"Elegia" sends chills up my spine every time I hear it. This is easily the best live version I've ever heard.

The original unmastered version of this gig has been spread pretty far and wide since 2004. Trust me when I say you will want to bin it immediately upon hearing this 2012 mastering - it crushes it like a grape. This version here is truly spectacular, and could be released tomorrow by Warners.

At long last I'm starting to fix up and free a stash of gigs - which first saw the light (heh) in 2004 on the long-defunct Sharing The Groove, but were essentially untouched beyond basic cleanup - that really show how brilliant New Order were in their prime in the mid-'80s.

The quick-and-dirty background: Whilst cleaning house, a set of New Order tapes (various mid-80s live gigs, some rehearsals, and a DAT or two from the band's 1989 US tour) was found by Hooky under the floorboards at his studio Suite 16 in Rochdale, England. A musician friend of Hooky, who was in his employ for a duration in the early 90s, then rescued the tapes and sold them to an infamous collector in Florida, who is known for not sharing the wealth. In the interim, ATR (sometimes called Stash) obtained 1st-generation dubs of these tapes before they were shipped off to Florida. ATR then shared them amongst the New Order cognoscenti, and then in 2004 we fed them to the world via Sharing The Groove.

All these gigs had their various problems as-received from the source in between Hooky and us, the least of which were sector boundary errors (which means, if burned as-is to CD, there are audible "pops" in between tracks) and all off-pitch by varying degrees. Some were extremely muddy, and others were far too bright. None of them were just right, but my aim is to make them so.

(The New Order "stash" gigs that were on Sharing The Groove, and various other torrent sites and blogs from 2004 onward, are all from those original 2004 releases and have not been formally mastered since, until now.)

With this set, we see the band in fine form in metropolitan London. Two notables about this gig:

1) "This Time Of Night" from this gig was shortlisted for the live CD in the Retro box set, and this version (unmastered, presumably) appeared on very early track sheets (and working CD-Rs during compilation). Bobby Gillespie loved it but Bernard had it binned for another track instead (I forget which).

2) "She's Lost Control" is debuted by New Order. This period of New Order gigging is weird; it's obvious they were in a bit of a state because they played a handful of Joy Division tracks here in December 1985 to the extent they'd never done before, and wouldn't do so again until 1998. They unearthed "She's Lost Control", "Atmosphere", and "Love Will Tear Us Apart" during this period.

The original unmastered version has been spread pretty far and wide since 2004. Trust me when I say you will want to bin it immediately upon hearing this 2012 mastering - it crushes it like a grape. This set here is easily a candidate for official release (barring the fades/cuts on the original cassette board master), should the band re-activate their once-planned-subsequently-binned live album project.

enjoy!

01 State Of The Nation (fades in)
02 Blue Monday
03 The Village
04 This Time Of Night
05 Subculture
06 Thieves Like Us
07 Confusion
08 Weirdo
09 Ceremony (cuts in)
10 Temptation
11 She's Lost Control
12 The Perfect Kiss

The PIT

A place in which I occasionally post my favorite LPs, EPs, songs, what-have-you. No particular schedule, just when the mood strikes. What will you find here? Excellent, genre-setting (or busting) music. No crap. Promise. Like the stuff? Buy it. Support the scene, keep the kids in line, delete after 24 hours, etc. For evaluation purposes only. The files will explode into a bloody mess 24 hours after you listen to them. You don't want mp3 shrapnel inside your PC do you?